CentralanUK returns to North Staffordshire for their fourth event at Moorlands Village Hall on the weekend of 2nd – 4th April.
From 6pm Friday, over forty hardcore gamers will descend on the hall, and enjoy a mixture of serious and fun tournaments through the entire day and night, and some of them will aim to stay wawake and endure the whole weekend without any sleep, for a whole 48 hours of constant gaming fun!

These are bring-your-own-PC events, where a fast latency-free gaming network is available; you just have to bring yourself, your PC and a sleeping bag.

Fun fun fun
This time round though, there will be fewer serious tournaments in the event and more fun gaming.... plus prizes for outstanding gaming.

Almost any game with multiplayer capabilities can be played on the network from first-person shooter games, to real-time-strategy or even some sporting games.
Some brand new releases will be kicking around at the event, and there will even be time for some retro-gaming fun, they say.

Believe it or not, for the serious 48-hour-party- people, there will be food, in the form of a Curry Night on the Friday of the LAN (charge additional to the ticket price)

As Jon Winkle, the organiser says, the joy of LAN parties is that you can finally meet the people who you have only previously chatted to through internet gaming.

For more information on this event, go to www.centralanuk.co.uk

With the advent of cheap and easily obtainable networking, more and more people are starting to get into the idea of LANs (Local Area Networks) or Internet gaming.
Today you can set up a network between any number of PCs with just some network cards (around £15-£20) and the pc's themselves.
If you need to have the flexibility of moving the PCs round then a wireless network can be set up for around £30 per PC for a “Bluetooth” connection.

Both systems are fast and reliable -- however, most people playing games over a network prefer to go for the wired network, as the “Bluetooth” technology is still comparatively slow.
Many ISPs now offer broadband for a very reasonable amount each month - or for a really fast connection you can go for NTL who are offering up to 1MB cable connections.

Games
If gaming is your thing at the moment, there are hundreds of games available that allow you to network (either in a LAN, or over the Internet).
Games like Quake3 (science fiction) and Half-Life are among the most popular at the moment.

If you get fed up with these games there are dozens of modifications available which change various aspects of the game (typically players looks or environments), to create a completely different game with a minimum of new files needing to be installed.
The most popular of these MODs at the moment is CounterStrike (for half-life).

Xbox
Xbox players may recognise one of the most eagerly anticiapted games of next year as Halo, which promises to have all the fun of the Xbox multiplayer games only on a much grander scale.

Networked games don't just restrict you to shoot'em ups either.
Even the Tony Hawkes series has gone multiplayer.

Codemasters are leading the racing front with their games TOCA race driver and the upcoming game Indycar Series.
These have various handling levels so you can have a car that drives like the real thing or a nice and easily controlled vehicle.
In the case of Indycar Series, the AI drivers that can be put on track during any network games are all "evolved" from ten or twelve different versions of the driver AI to make them more realistic.

If driving or shooting is not your thing how about the perennial favourite Command and Conquer (now in its fifth incarnation).
This game (known as a strategy game) gives you some troops, vehicles and an amount of money. You then have to devise a strategy to accomplish any mission objectives you are given - usually for a multiplayer game this is to destroy any other teams.
You can do this by going solo and trying to wipe out the other players or by joining forces, before a backstabbing finale.

Role-playing
If you like role-playing games then you are really in for a treat.
If you have access to the internet via broadband or cable, then you can choose from any number of MMPORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games).
The major contenders in this field are Diablo 2 or Everquest.

However George Lucas's games company is hoping to topple these giants from their pedestal with his game StarWars Galaxies.
In this game you can choose what your character looks like, what he or she does, where they live even whether they will be jedi or sith.
The major downsides of the game though are that its only going to be an online game (with upto £10 per month subscriptions) and that you can't play any of the characters from the films.
If the excitement of lightsabre battles sounds too much you can just plod along and work for a living....!

Diablo 2 (with the excitment of a Lamborghini) seems to be quite a popular game for LAN games though with people creating their own little networks at a friends house.

Multi Faces
If you have got bored with the monotony of single player games, try playing multiplayer: you might just surprise yourself. [Nothing like a thinking human opponent to truly test your skills..]
One word of advice: get yourself a good alarm clock (because you'll be up all night) and hope your partner or parents don't mind to much (they won't see much of you for a while).

Ben Norley

If you fancy talking to Ben, commenting on what he's said, or talking about gaming in this area, just email